Unadopted road & adjacent pp, lower our offer?

Squifflabiff

FTBs we found the perfect house, listed at £122000 but got into a bidding war and sale agreed at £125000. We have now found out that the road it's on is unadopted, despite the fact that the last house on the development was finished arround ten years ago. There is a bond in place and it seems like things are moving towards adoption however, we've now found out that there is also planning permission for another house to be built beside ours. The planning permission was granted in 2014 and lasts until 2020, we're not very happy about any of this, especially as the seller must have known but never mentioned any of this just left our solicitor to find out. Friends of friends bought a house on the same development last year and they were told all issues from the start and were fine with it as they "got a bargain" because of the issues. How much would it be reasonable to drop our offer by? We know the seller needs the sale to go through as he's already bought his new house, and seems increasingly stressed, we don't want to take advantage but I kinda feel that he took advantage of us and that we're definitely paying too much for it. Thanks

mije1983

Unless you asked the vendor outright about road adoption and PP, and they lied, they legally they haven't done anything wrong. That's what searches are for.

10 years is nothing. The road where I bought a house last year was built mid to late 80's, and apparently it only got adopted by the council about 5 years ago.

How does the price of the house compare to other local ones sold recently? If you feel you're paying too much then I assume that others are around are cheaper than this one?

Be careful not to cut off your nose to spite your face. The other bidders may not worry about the road and the possibility of another house next door. So the vendor may just reject your offer of negotiation and go for their offer instead.

EachPenny

Squifflabiff wrote: »

FTBs we found the perfect house, listed at £122000 but got into a bidding war and sale agreed at £125000.
<snip>
The planning permission was granted in 2014 and lasts until 2020, we're not very happy about any of this,
<snip>
How much would it be reasonable to drop our offer by? We know the seller needs the sale to go through as he's already bought his new house, and seems increasingly stressed, we don't want to take advantage but I kinda feel that he took advantage of us and that we're definitely paying too much for it. Thanks

If I was your vendor and you came back to me trying to reduce your offer having won a 'bidding war' I would politely tell you that I am no longer selling it to you and will reopen negotiations with the other party. I'd also make it very clear that I would never, under any circumstances, sell the property to you, regardless of what you offer. My expection would be that you will attempt to beat me all the way back down to the original listed price, and that's a game I just wouldn't want to play - especialy if I was feeling stressed.

You vendor could be a nice fluffy bunny type person whose stress will manifest in a willingness to accept a price reduction. Or they could be a miserable stressed person feeling people are taking the !!!$ out of them and tell you to do one.

The question is, do you feel lucky?

Planning applications and consents are public documents. The local council usually publishes them on their website with free access. When looking at buying a property it only takes a few minutes to do a search to see what applications (if any) apply to the local area. You shouldn't need the vendor to do this for you, and I wouldn't trust them anyway.

Doozergirl

If you had an offer accepted as the result of a bidding war, as a vendor I would be going back to the other party.

I don't think either of those things affect the value of a house.

kinger101

Planning permission doesn't need to be disclosed at viewings stage, but it's foolish not to mention it in case it bothers a perspective buyer and they later withdraw (or try to negotiate down).

What is the planning permission for? It the new building blocking an outstanding view of rolling hills, a lake, or a meadow full of wild flowers. Or just other, possibly more ugly, buildings.

If you're bothered, pull out. If you think they've just been a bit cheeky, weigh up the risks of attempting to negotiate the price downwards or just proceeding as normal.

kinger101

mije1983 wrote: »

Unless you asked the vendor outright about road adoption and PP, and they lied, they legally they haven't done anything wrong. That's what searches are for.

10 years is nothing. The road where I bought a house last year was built mid to late 80's, and apparently it only got adopted by the council about 5 years ago.

How does the price of the house compare to other local ones sold recently? If you feel you're paying too much then I assume that others are around are cheaper than this one?

Be careful not to cut off your nose to spite your face. The other bidders may not worry about the road and the possibility of another house next door. So the vendor may just reject your offer of negotiation and go for their offer instead.

Personally, I'd lay cards face up on the table for anything I knew about which would show up during the conveyancing process. As a vendor, it saves you having fees for aborted sales, and time wasted.

Cash-Cows

You must have seen there was spare land next to yours when you viewed it. What did you think the land was going to be used for?

Davesnave

Cash-Cows wrote: »

You must have seen there was spare land next to yours when you viewed it. What did you think the land was going to be used for?

^ This.

It was once not so easy to find out the planning and development history of a place, but now it can all be done from the comfort of a sofa.

You may be inexperienced in house buying, but that doesn't make it the vendor's job to volunteer information of potential works beyond the property you're buying.

moneyistooshorttomention

Cash-Cows wrote: »

You must have seen there was spare land next to yours when you viewed it. What did you think the land was going to be used for?

Maybe as "amenity land"? Why wouldn't OP?

One has to learn a degree of cynicism to think "Betcha they ain't planning to just leave it and will be regarding it as "spare land" instead (there's no such concept - but that isn't how builders see it)"

Squifflabiff

We were probably naive not checking for planning permissions before we put in an offer but the development looks finished, the road ends with a turning circle in front of the house we’re buying and then a 6 foot fence. Beyond the fence is a pumping station, river and small forest area and then playing fields so we presumed everything beyond the fence was council land. The plot with Pp is long and thin and runs along side our garden, and if they put the house on the middle or back of the plot then it would potentially block a lot of our sunlight as our garden is quite small.

However, they may never build the house, we found out that the roads service will never adopted the road or call in the bond while the development is unfinished so this site might just be the developers insurance that he’ll never have to lose his bond. We know the developer as it’s a small town and he has a terrible reputation, such that when the development was first built no locals bought houses in it.

We would never have bid anywhere near what we did if we’d know the issues so I don’t see why it’s unreasonable to renegotiate the price, if the seller chooses to go with the other bidders then that’s fine, we’ll be happy to walk away then.

Larac

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Maybe as "amenity land"? Why wouldn't OP?

One has to learn a degree of cynicism to think "Betcha they ain't planning to just leave it and will be regarding it as "spare land" instead (there's no such concept - but that isn't how builders see it)"

The cynical side of me would be - if there is spare piece of land, near to where you intend to buy a house and there is a room to build a house(s) then there is a risk at some stage it will be built on. The village I live in, they have squeezed houses on all sorts of odd bits of land over the years. To the OP - I would say 'buyer beware'.